


Inked The Hell Up

by catsaremyboyfriend



Category: Batgirl (Comics), Black Canary - Fandom, DCU (Animated), DCU (Comics)
Genre: F/F, Lesbian Superheroes
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-10-20
Updated: 2014-11-06
Packaged: 2018-02-21 21:24:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,870
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2482955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/catsaremyboyfriend/pseuds/catsaremyboyfriend
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Uh, I really wanted lesbian superheroes, and Cassandra Cain was trained by Black Canary at some point, so here. Lots of fluffy heroic lesbians. With tattoos.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Foolin' With The Landlord

“You are tattooed _all over_. That’s insane.” Cassandra tilts her head, pulling the robe further over her shoulders.  
She keeps her back to Dinah, facing the windows across from the door. “I don’t even know what I can teach you. You’re one of the best fighters I’ve ever seen, and that body language thing? _Jesus_.”

“You. Brawling style. Tactics.” 

“So that’s why you’re in my apartment, but why are you naked?” 

“Landlord. Suspicious. Needed distraction.”

“What, did you seduce him with your feminine wiles?” 

She grins and goes for a fistbump, but Cassandra shakes her head. “Intercourse. With you.”

“My landlord thinks I’m a lesbian now? Well, it’s not a lie.” Cassandra lets the robe drop to her waist, looks over her shoulder at Dinah. There are bullet scars on both her shoulder blades, underneath the tentacles that start at her neck and curl towards her waist.  
“You are…really unashamed of your body. Which is good! Girl power, and all that.” Dinah yawns, pulling her jacket and leotard off and sitting to tug at the fishnets. If Cassandra can be naked, than so can she. She’s always been competitive.  
Cassandra touches the claw marks down her spine and Dinah straightens with a jump. “So! Bed! I turned the living room into a gym, so no couch. Are you okay if we sleep together?” 

Cassandra raises a brow. “Are you?”

 

_________________________________  
Dinah showers while Cassandra finds clothes. Hopefully. She must’ve came straight from patrol, all she has is her uniform. Dinah’s patrol tonight was hard. Ollie made a stupid decision, like _always_ , and some thug got a good hit to her sternum. Now it’s bruised and she’s gonna have a hard time shrieking for a while.  
She tugs a t-shirt and panties on and walks into her room. Cassandra’s already in bed, wearing a tank. She sits staring straight ahead, hands folded across her stomach. “Uh, do you snore? Probably not. Silence is…kinda your thing. Look, if I wake up screaming, get out quick. My cry won’t kill you, but it hurts like a bitch.” 

“And I. No kill.”

“Yeah, killing me in my sleep would kinda suck.” Cassandra turns her head, the tattooed flowers and skull across her chest shifting. There’s a wasp on her right elbow, maybe there’s some sort of nature theme going on? Then again, the whole top of her left arm is machinery, forearm colored as black as her uniform. Pearls follow the line of her ribs. They all hide scars.

“Staring.”

Dinah grins easily. “Sorry. I like your tattoos.”

She crawls into bed next to Cassandra, feels the smooth slide of their legs. She expected to feel nervous, sleeping next to an assassin, but as soon as the room goes dark she’s out.

 

_______________________________________  
She wakes up with her face pressed to the bare skin of Cassandra’s side, drooling onto the line of her shorts. There’s a thin scar near her eye. Cassandra has a book balanced on her head. The soft brush of pages is what woke her.

“Mouth warm.” Cassandra taps a finger on her upper lip. 

“S’it time to get up yet?” Dinah mumbles. 

“Shh.” Cassandra’s hands stroke along her temples, cup her face. Dinah’s already half asleep, but she thinks she hears Cassandra say, “Pretty.”

 

________________________________  
Cassandra does everything naked or barely clothed. They’ve been living together for a day, but Dinah could already give a good guess at Cassandra’s measurements. “Cassandra, you _have_ to wear clothes.” Cassandra gives her a questioning hum. “Cause it’s really distracting, that’s why!” Dinah hisses, looking up from her cereal.  
Cassandra has shorts on, leans her right forearm against the table. It’s too heavily damaged for tattoos, thick knots of scar tissue cratering her dark skin. “How’d you get those scars?” Cassandra shrugs, and holy shit is Dinah distracted again. “Look. At least a shirt and panties at all times, okay?”  
Cassandra nods, reaching out to tug at the collar of Dinah’s shirt. “What…no! Not my shirt, I have to wear clothes, too.” She gets a quick smile before Cassandra is gone and back in seconds, wearing a tanktop. “Alright, that’s better.”

 

________________________________________  
Fighting Cassandra is like fighting everyone trained by the League. Vicious and acrobatic and quick. The only difference is that Cassandra doesn’t make cryptic statements and she keeps seeing Dinah’s moves before she’s even made them. “Jesus. _Jesus_. Okay, Cassandra. I need a break.” She takes a careful breath, cause her chest aches and being punched wasn’t helping. Cassandra flows to her side, puts a hand to her breastbone.

“Ouch?” she asks, frowning.

“Yeah, I got bruised pretty bad last night, but I’ll be okay.”

“Mm.” Cassandra sits at her feet.

“Do you wanna do anything else?” She shakes her head. “Do you wanna go see Robin?” She shakes her head again. Dinah crouches in front of her, a little concerned. “Do you do anything besides sleep and train?” Cassandra nods. “What?” 

“Eat.” Dinah laughs and shoves gently at her shoulder. 

_____________________________________  
They have lunch in the gym, sitting crosslegged in front of each other. “So, Cassandra, do you like flowers?” Cassandra points to the flowers along her breastbone. Dinah smiles. “I meant more along the lines of gardening.”

“Yes.”

“You could get a job as a florist. With me. You won’t be bored that way.”

“Mm.” She grins at Dinah through a mouthful of chow mein. 

“You can get started once I tell Mom. Cassandra-”

“Cassie.” 

Dinah keeps her face blank, but that’s useless here. Cassandra winks at her. “Cassie it is, then. Let me ice my bruises, then we’ll go again.”

 

_______________________________________  
She leaves to go to the bathroom, comes back to find Cassie hanging by the knees from her rafters. It’s fine. She hangs out with a lot of people who like heights. Arsenal is crazy for them. Probably cause he’s so short. “Cassie. Get down here so we can spar, yeah?”  
Cassie shakes her head, drops gracefully to land on her hands before tumbling back to her feet. “Huh? I thought you wanted to train.”

She moves behind Dinah, putting a hand to her breastbone. “Ouch.” 

“What, the bruises? It’s fine, I’ve been hurt before.” 

Cassie’s brows narrow. “ _Ouch._ ”

“Ugh, fine, we don’t have to train.” She heads to the bathroom, pulling off her sweaty clothes. “Lemme take a shower, then we can go out for ice cream?”  
Cassie grins.

____________________________________________  
Cassie also follows her into the shower. There are drops of water on the small of her back, on her eyelashes. God, Dinah isn’t sure whether Cassie is a blessing or a curse. “Cassie, you can’t shower with me.” 

“Water?” 

“Saving water’s not an issue. You can shower after me.” Cassie grabs a towel and leaves. When Dinah gets out of the shower, she’s sponging herself down near the sink.

 

_______________________________________  
Cassie smiles while she walks, close to Dinah’s side. Their hands brush. “Lorenzo’s has the best ice cream in the city. I go there whenever I need a treat,” Dinah says as they turn a corner. “I figure that you could do with some treats, right?”  
Cassie nods. “I’ve trained a few heroes before, but they usually had their own bases. I know you’re not living with Batman, but are you sure you don’t want your own place?” 

Cassie’s eyes flick to Dinah’s face. “Stay.” 

“Alrighty.”

 

_________________________________________  
Dinah gets Black Raspberry, Cassie gets Neapolitan. They eat outside at the tables, the metal top cool against Dinah’s forearms. Cassie keeps knocking their toes together. She watches the city with wary eyes, tensing whenever the sound level rises.

“Cassie. Probably nothing’s going to happen,” Dinah tries, briefly taking her hand. Cassie stares at her for a moment, something sad in her face. “This is Star City. If something happens, we’re not the only people on the forefront.” 

Cassie leans to rest her head on the table, taking Dinah’s hand again. Her ice cream’s melting into greyish goo. “Tired.” 

“I know, honey. We’re all tired. But justice is worth fighting for.” 

Cassie sits up, smirking. “Just tired.”

“Oh. You meant tired as in sleepy. Did you come here from a different time zone?” She nods, yawning. “Jeez, you shoulda told me. Let’s go home and take a nap.” She looks at her ice cream and then at Dinah. “You don’t have to finish it.” Cassie lets go of her hand and starts cleaning up. 

 

___________________________________  
“Zz?” Cassie asks when they get home. 

“Yeah, we can sleep.” Cassie strips off her pants and flips onto Dinah’s bed, making it creak. Her eyes are heavy. Dinah undresses more slowly, tumbles into bed. Cassie moves closer to her, throws a leg over hers.  
There’s a cupcake on the curve of her hip. Cute. Dinah doesn’t bother tempting herself by looking further. 

“You’re a very physical person, Cassie.” 

“Mm.” 

“It’s kinda nice.” Cassie’s already asleep, though, so Dinah shuts the light off.


	2. Leverage Is My Life Now

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How many chapters? Nobody knows.

“We should get you some clothes.” She gets a confused look from Cassie, who’s curled in her window wearing a long t-shirt. There’s a line of pixelated dinosaurs around her right ankle, a god with four arms on her foot. A pinup girl curves around her calf. “Hey, Cassie, are you gay?” Cassie stretches her smile with two fingers, and Dinah laughs. “No, honey, no. Gay as in…intercourse with women.” 

“Ah. Yes.” She pokes at the apple of Dinah’s cheek. “Pretty.”

Dinah grabs her hand, holds it to her chest. “You’re cute, Cassie.” 

“Cute?” 

“Yes. Very cute.” Cassie laughs and rolls backwards to her feet. She looks down at Dinah, hands on hips. “Ouch?” 

“Yeah, my chest still hurts. I’m not a quick healer.” Cassie falls easily into a fighting stance, doing a series of familiar kicks and flips. “Have you been trying some of Nightwing’s tricks?” She does a backbend and grins, hair in her eyes. “He’s a good person to watch if you need to fight bigger opponents. All the Robins are.” 

“You.” 

“Yes, also me. People like us, without super strength, we have to fight smart. I can help you fight smart.” She catches Cassie’s frown. “Smarter. To fight smarter.” Cassie grins, smug.  
_____________________________________________  
“So, you’re telling me that you’ve never seen Pacific Rim?” Cassie shakes her head. “It’s got everything you like. Strong women, tentacles, robots.” Cassie touches the small robot under her belly button. “We can train later. Sometimes you have to explore the finer things in life.”  
__________________________________________________  
Cassie falls asleep right away, head lolling against Dinah’s shoulder. Her breath is warm and smells of vanilla. Dinah carefully relaxes and settles into to watch Jaegers beat Kaiju.  
_______________________________________  
They go out walking and Cassie takes her hand, bold as brass. Her palm is calloused. “Look, Cassie, I don’t know what holding hands means to you…”

Cassie lets go of her hand immediately. “No.” Her spine is even straighter than usual.

“Wait, honey, I’m sorry. C’mere.” She grabs for Cassie’s hand again, laces their fingers together. “Hand holding can mean whatever you want it to.” They walk hand in hand for a few blocks. Dinah destroys the eardrums of every man who catcalls them.  
_______________________________________  
Robin visits when Cassie falls asleep. “Tim, honey, you could just use the door,” Dinah says when she spots him in the window. 

He steps into the room with a swish of cape. “Is she here?” 

“Yes. She’s asleep.” 

“Is she alright?”

“Of course.” 

“She’s important to me.” 

“It’s just training, Tim.”

“Yes, I-”

“Tim?” Cassie stands in the doorway to their room, robe held to her chest. 

“Hey, Cassie. Just checking in.” 

“Good.” 

“Yeah, I can see you’re doing good.” He nods and leaves through the window. 

“Those Bats. Always leaving in the weirdest ways. Hot chocolate?” Cassie nods.  
________________________________________________  
Dinah sips at the foam in her mug and smiles. “When I was little, my throat bothered me a lot. Mom used to make this for me.”

“Yum.” 

“Yeah, it’s pretty great.” 

Cassie hooks her foot around Dinah’s ankle. Her feet are chilly. “Teach.”

“What, right now? It’s 3 a.m.”

“ _Teach_.” 

Dinah shoves her mug away. “Fine. But I’m not getting up, so we’ll start on tactics. First, infiltration…”   
_______________________________________________  
“Happy,” Cassie says, catching Dinah’s arm. A bead of sweat drips down her temple. 

“You’re always happy while training, Cassie.”

“No. You. Happy.” 

“Well, yeah. You’re one of the best fighters I’ve ever worked with. It’s satisfying.” Cassie sits, pulls her left foot behind her head and rests her cheek against the demon head tattoo on her calf. Dinah hates the League and their need to brand all their members. “And you’re a good person, Cassie. I like you.” Cassie grins wide. “What else can you tell from my body language?” 

“Lots.” 

“Can you tell what I’m thinking? Has anyone tested how this works?” Cassie’s brow furrows as her fists clench. She jumps for the rafters, watching Dinah with wary eyes. “Cassie?” Dinah stays still, palms up. “Find your words, honey. If I said something wrong, tell me. You can read that I’m harmless.” 

Cassie holds out her right arm, the one with chunks of flesh torn from it, and bares her teeth. “N…no. No test.” 

“Okay. Come back down here, please.” Cassie flips down in front of Dinah. “We don’t need to talk about the body language thing, or…tests…until you’re ready. Okay?” Cassie nods.  
____________________________________________________  
Cassie doesn’t relax for several hours. Dinah has them watch movies, sits while Cassie absentmindedly touches her hair, her throat. She falls asleep with her head on Dinah’s chest, arms under her shoulders. Dinah strokes the long, bare plane of her back til the sun rises.


	3. Bones Is Cool Too. If A Little Scary

They’re walking along the street when Cassie nods at a woman, her mouth turned down. “Sad.” 

Dinah glances up from her phone, cause Roy’s having yet another crisis. “Huh?” 

She nods at the woman again. “Sad.” 

“Why?” Cassie rolls her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I know. You’re not a mind reader.”   
Dinah strolls up to the woman, who’s solid and dark haired. There’s a long scar between her eyebrows. “Hey there. Are you alright?” 

The woman jumps, turning with a forced smile. “Excuse me?” “Are you alright, miss?” 

The woman dissolves into sobs, and Dinah pulls her into an alley. “It’s my husband. The Mob has him!” 

Cassie gives her a smug little grin. “Sad.”

An investigation, a rescue, and one stray bullet later, the woman is reunited with her husband and Dinah’s taking a bullet out of Cassie’s thigh.   
Cassie’s fingers dig into her shoulder. “It’ll be fine, honey, it’ll be fine, just a bullet wound,” Dinah mutters, blood slicking her fingers. The bullet narrowly missed a fish tattoo, passed right above the night sky on her inner thigh.  
She finally digs the bullet out and cauterizes the wound, Cassie not making a sound. The room smells of burned flesh and blood. “That was intense,” Dinah says, trying for cheerfulness. Cassie gives her a look. “Okay, yeah. I’m sorry. Do you need anything? You’re gonna be off your feet for a while.” Cassie groans. 

___________________________________  
Cassie sits up in bed, glaring at the TV. Her fingers tap against her uninjured thigh. There’s an untouched bottle of water on the bedside table. “It’s Firefly, Cassie. Everyone likes Firefly.” She gets a noncommittal shrug. “You’re so difficult to impress.” 

Cassie looks her up and down, smirks. “You. Impressive.” 

Dinah laughs and joins her on the bed, steals sips of her water. “Thank you.”   
___________________________________________  
Cassie gets a fever. Of course she gets a fever. Batman drops by, tells her that Cassie’ll be fine, eventually. Cassie shivers and pushes her head against Dinah’s chest. Her skin burns.   
“Oh honey, oh honey,” Dinah croons, stroking a hand down her side, palm on her hip. Their legs tangle. Cassie is groggy and incoherent, mouthing nonsense words into the flesh above Dinah’s neckline. She twitches every so often, and Dinah presses her lips into sweaty hair. “It’ll be okay, sweetheart.”   
Cassie has a long line of glass right above her butt, and Dinah touches it, feels smooth skin where her mind expects something hard. Dinah’s already warm, moves Cassie so she’s on top, splays a hand across the small of her back. 

Cassie raises a hand to touch Dinah’s neck. “Dinah Dinah Dinah.” 

“You know my name? I mean, of course you know my name, but you can _say_ my name?” 

Cassie giggles, presses a wet kiss to her collarbone. “Dinah.” She moves up higher, bites along Dinah’s jaw, the curve of her throat. 

“Whoa there, Cassie. Much as I’d love to reciprocate, you are _very_ woozy right now.” 

“Mm.” Cassie settles down and yawns, murmuring sleepily into Dinah’s cleavage. Dinah strokes her hair. 

“You’ll be better in the morning, love.” 

“Mm.”   
__________________________________________  
Dinah sometimes wishes that Cassie wasn’t quite so serious. She’s patient while her leg heals, spends long hours doing careful training, watches movies like she’s studying how to be human. She’ll turn up while Dinah’s showering, hair loose around her shoulders, and calmly inquire about the Bat family. “Cass, honey, you can’t interrupt people while they shower,” Dinah explains, pushing her gently out of the stall. 

“Ask.” 

“Yeah, I know you have to ask me something, but it can happen when I’m out of the shower.” 

Cassie frowns. “Batman.” 

“Batman let you talk to him in the shower?” She nods. “Jesus. What was that like?”

Cassie makes a considering face. “Big. Wet.”

Dinah laughs and steps back under the spray. “Batman’s not exactly the best role model when it comes to social skills, honey.” Cassie nods. “Don’t try that with Nightwing. He might take it as an invitation, and I don’t need you trying to cripple him.”  
_____________________________________  
“You’re not gonna try to sneak out and patrol or anything, right?” Cassie tilts her head. “Cause Superboy did that while injured, and so did all the Robins, and just…a bunch of other superheroes. They seem to think injured means ‘go out and hurt myself more.’ Don’t even get me started on Batman, he’d go out on patrol if he lost his head.”   
Cassie smiles at her. “You’re properly trained, I guess. I don’t have to worry.” Cassie touches the bandage on her thigh, then Dinah’s chest. “Yeah, see, I’m smart, too. I got hurt, so I didn’t patrol. Now my chest’s better, and I can fight again, no problem.” She lets loose a small cry, shattering a window for like the thousandth time. Cassie laughs when she blushes.


	4. Young Justice Makes My Heart Hurt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Uh, sort of sex but not really so rating isn't gonna change

Dinah wakes up and Cassie’s gone. Someone is talking in the gym. She sneaks in, sees Red Hood sprawled across the mats while Cassie dangles her legs above him. He’s speaking softly to her, helmet off. Dinah relaxes and steps into the room. “Hey there, Jay. How’s it going?”

“Hey, Canary. Good enough.”

She nods and Cassie flips down from the rafters. “Talk.”

“Yeah, I saw. I didn’t know you were friends with Jason.”

Cassie fistbumps him, rests his helmet in her lap. Her fingers splay across the front, over the pitted red paint. “Close.”

“Hard to be close friends with this meat head.” Jason sticks his tongue out at her. “Are you out of Gotham for a while?” A shadow passes over his face, and like always she wants to hug him and punch Bruce. She slings an arm around Cassie’s shoulders instead, grinning at Jason. “Was that look a yes?” He finally shrugs, nods.   
Dinah remembers when he was Robin and he laughed all the time, copying Dick’s silly one-liners. Now every smile takes effort and her heart breaks. “You could stay with us. I’m training Cassie, but I’m sure we could use some tips.”

“Nah. I’ve got a hotel room. Real fancy.” 

“Well, you know there’s always room.”   
He gives her a soft smile, the scars on his face shifting, and Dinah reaches a hand over to stroke along his hair. Sometimes he doesn’t like to be touched, and she understands, but this time he just leans into her fingers. “I know. I gotta go, I only came to see Cassie.” 

“Alright, honey. Come back any time.” She gives him a quick hug before he’s out the widow and off into the night. “You ready to go back to sleep, hon?” Cassie nods, cartwheeling into their bedroom. Dinah laughs and follows. They fall asleep with Dinah’s hand resting on the new scar on Cassie’s thigh.  
________________________________________________________  
“S’too cold to get up,” she whines as Cassie taps her on the head. Cassie pushes her face into the curve of Dinah’s neck, breathes hot in her ear. Dinah shivers and presses her thighs together. “It doesn’t matter how much you breathe on me, Cass. I’m not getting up to see that folk concert.”   
Cassie hums a tune, sits up to dig her thumbs into the small of Dinah’s back. “Massages won’t help you, either.” Cassie makes a sad noise and Dinah groans, rolls over to place her hands on Cassie’s hips. She’s a solid, warm weight. “Alright, alright. Don’t pout at me.” 

Cassie grins and leaps off her. “Win.” 

“Yeah, yeah, you always win.”

 

Dinah wears jeans, a turtleneck, her combat boots. She glances at the temperature and groans, pulling a pea coat on. Cassie dresses the same, but she’s bouncing on her toes. “I didn’t know you liked folk music this much.”

“Never.” 

“What, you’ve never been to a folk concert before?”

“Concert.”

“Oh. You’ve never been to a concert.” Sometimes Dinah forgets everything Cassie has missed.

“Mm.” Cassie moves in close, wraps a fluffy yellow scarf around her neck. She goes on tip toe, kisses her cheek. Dinah can feel herself blushing.

“Warm.” 

“Yeah, ah, I’ll be warm now. Thanks, hon.”

 

They walk along the streets hand in hand, stand at the concert pressed close. Dinah looks down at Cassie, who’s pink cheeked and smiling, dark wisps of hair escaping from her hat. When they get home they’ll have lunch, then train. Dinah will make hot chocolate and they’ll watch a movie curled up together in bed.   
She’s already looking forward to it, squeezes Cassie’s hand til she looks over. On impulse, Dinah kisses her forehead, the tip of her nose, then her mouth. She’s soft, tastes like the syrup they had on their waffles. They separate and Cassie’s giggling, nuzzles her face into Dinah’s coat. She pulls her in by the lapels of her coat and kisses her again, soft presses of their lips over and over. The blood pounding in her ears is louder than the music.

They’re both laughing as they walk home, and Dinah’s not cold anymore. They stop in an alley on the way, kiss til someone wolf whistles. Cassie’s lips are swollen and red. She makes happy noises and licks into Dinah’s mouth. Dinah puts her thumbs to her face, strokes along her jaw. “Honey, honey, we gotta get home.” Cassie pushes her face forward, pouting. “Fine, one more.” She kisses her a last time, and they run home.

 

Cassie is quiet even in bed. She moves above Dinah like a wave, and Dinah kisses all her tattoos, memorizing the feel of her skin. After, Cassie sprawls out beside her, breathing deeply, and laughs. Dinah wraps an arm around her and falls asleep for a while.


End file.
